The new defender!

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rob1miles said:
Is this going to be like the MG - MX5 - we abandon a sector as not profitable and the Japs come along with a decent design and double or treble the size of the market?
Click to expand...

Yes, and has been for some time. The Land Cruiser 70 Series is an excellent Defender 110 replacement in many parts of the world and with a Euro-compliant engine would be in Europe too.
download (17).jpg
 
So, tonight I trundled over to Marshalls of Newbury to view the new Defender. Usual reception of over shiny and/or tired looking sales men and over made up sales girls with peculiar looking eyebrows...except for one girl who'll mention at end of post. There was only one silver Defender with various folk milling around with teas, coffees, beers in hand all extolling the gloriousness of Slovakian's best. External looks...well, it's the same as the photos we've all seen. No external criticism except for the rear lights detail, it's a genuinely stupid design of recessed plastic that will simply hoard piles of dirt and crap. Why not make this flat to the body?

Inside, lots of room, good features. Aesthetically, I really like the clean lines of the dashboard and steering wheel, and the part utilitarian approach. Also spent a good 15 minutes in the driver seat playing with the new infotainment system. It's very intuitive and has clearly had much R&D time put into the finished article, with the screen being a perfect size of clarity without distracting from the main activity of driving. Ergonomically the interior works with added bonus that even the 110 does not feel like an over sized 4x4. However, continuity of materials is not too good, nor is the quality of 20-30% of the materials. Understanding this is a pre-production near zero mile 110 one would expect the seat bases and squabs to be in tiptop condition, they weren't. The front seats were already looking worn and out of support/material shape, this does not baud well for the rest of the car. Next time any of you see the new Defender tap the rear light cluster panel, it's wafer thin plastic! Come on Land Rover, you can do much much better for the prices you're attempting to charge.

Overall I came away very underwhelmed and it's going need some serious improvement for me to want to buy one next year, and not at those prices...I can buy a full blooded RR for half the price[!] My daily car is a 13 year old Subaru Forester XT that is near unbreakable. On the way home I couldn't help but realise how much better the interior quality is in the Forester, the thick wipe clean surfaces and very comfortable leather seats. I've never had back ache from the Forester, even when on long 15-16 hour drives to the Alpes.

A Defender replacement, it is not. It is, however, a C21st 4x4 for those who buy into the marketing hype and want the latest thing with a buying profile of PCP type finance with full maintenance contract included at £700-£850pcm. And it'll need to include full warranted maintenance as those 85ECU's will not stand the test of time unless driven on smooth motorways or amongst Chelsea Tractor Set...

...personally, I'm going to wait for the Grenadier :)
 
And now the girl with the lovely eyebrows. She served me tea and I noticed/commented on the photo' of Duncan Hamilton's 1953 Le Man winning C-Type Jaguar behind her. We spoke at some length about the C-Type and Defenders with her mentioning her father's blue blue 110 and how as a family they spent much of their time in the Landy...one can imagine the children, dog et al on weekly shopping trips and family holidays in the trusty old bus. The 110 was eventually sold and she mentioned how it would be great to track down the car. If not to buy, but maybe to know it still survives or even see it again. I suggested she take my number, text me with the registration number and maybe we could track down the Landy through the forum. She was genuinely delighted at the thought. If the text comes through I'll post up to see if the 110 is known here on the forum. This, and the girl with the lovely eyes brows, was the highlight of the Defender viewing...
 
I have just been looking at the 'new' Merc G wagon, I say 'new' because it was just updated with modern systems last year, but still looks like the original, so a classic can be updated and still keep the character! I believe the lower spec G wagons should be out in Aussie towards the end of next year, so I'm not going to rush into a Defender.
 
Graffix said:
I have just been looking at the 'new' Merc G wagon, I say 'new' because it was just updated with modern systems last year, but still looks like the original, so a classic can be updated and still keep the character! I believe the lower spec G wagons should be out in Aussie towards the end of next year, so I'm not going to rush into a Defender.
Click to expand...

The G Wagon is a great vehicle but it starts at over £80,000
Makes the new Defender look good value at £45,000.
 
Been round the LR factory yesterday

Very impressive to see these vehicles being assembled, from a roll of steel to a Land Rover in 48 hours
 
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